Response to Ray

Ray posed a few questions for me in the comment section of the last post. I thought I'd take the time here to respond. If you've stumbled upon this site, then please feel free to ask me questions. If science bores you, then can skip the science stuff to the gay marriage question below.

"I read about the earth moving. Thought that was interesting. Can you think of that maybe moving way out of control one day?"

I guess that is potentially possible. The movie 2012 comes to mind. Although, I think 2012 is filled with inaccuracies and science fiction. In general, it was a mostly entertaining movie at the theater, but I didn't buy the storyline and parts of the movie made me cringe.

The largest recorded earthquake was a magnitude 9.5 and occurred in Valdivia, Chile in 1960(red marker below*). The more recent 2010 earthquake in Maule, Chile was a magnitude 8.8 (yellow marker).
*markers are not necessarily the center of the earthquake

I can't find the original source anymore, but I read that the 1960 quake displaced a very large land mass that was much larger than the recent quake. If I had to guess, then an Earth-changing earthquake would require an extremely large amount of the Earth's crust moving closer to the core. (random thought, how does the movement of the Earth's axis change the Earth's interaction with the Moon?)

I don't think the Earth will move so far off it's axis from an earthquake to cause real harm, however, this could be a step in the process of the poles switching. This is probably a naive thought. (spoiler alert) I don't think that the continents will randomly slip, as portrayed in 2012, because they are all connected and the oceans are part of this connection.

In disagreement with much scientific thought that I have come across, I do think that earthquakes are connected. This does not mean that the Haitian earthquake set off the Chilean earthquake. However, earthquakes cause global shifts of continents and their vibrations must have some consequence on regions far from the epicenter. The instrument for measuring the magnitude of the earthquake is never at the site, but it still "feels" the vibrations.

Next topic:
"I am glad that gay people can marry in DC. Wished the rest of USA could. Would you think about getting married?"

My response to my mom when she asked was "we'll see. I haven't been dating my manfriend for long enough to say 'till death do we part', but it's a card in the deck." I've thought about getting married. I don't know that I'll be able to get married in the state of Georgia in my lifetime, but I don't plan to live in Atlanta forever. It's depressing to think about getting married in another state or city only to return home with a piece of paper with little to no legal or societal meaning in you hometown.

However, just like every little boy, I've dreamed of getting married since I was nine. I'm joking of course. For me I wasn't ever allowed to get married, because I'm gay. It wasn't even an option when I was born and Clinton killed it with DOMA when I was thirteen. At this point I knew I was gay, but I was hiding in the corner of the closet. Maybe that is why I've always had such opposition towards "straights" feeling that they must marry (especially before I came out).

These laws that restrict a group of society infuriate me! I'm hopeful that the future of the US will be a more accepting and not excepting one. ;)